Development and investigation of microwave plasma techniques in analytical atomic spectrometry

Microwave plasma (MWP) sources have found extensive use in spectrochemical analysis during the past decades. As the MWP offers some attractive features, it has been widely used either as an excitation source for atomic emission spectrometry (MWP-AES) or as an ionization source for mass spectrometry (MWP-MS). The use of MWPs as an atomization source for atomic absorption spectrometry (MWP-AAS) and atomic fluorescence spectrometry (MWP-AFS) has also appeared. The historical development and recent improvements in these MWP techniques are presented in this review with emphasis on the analytical performance, characteristics, interferences and applications. Research on the fundamental properties of MWPs is also given. Both the advantages and limitations of MWPs in atomic spectrometry are discussed.